Highlights from 11/20/14 school board meeting

After recognizing students and veterans in some wonderful ceremonies and with great music, the board got down to business … The following are the highlights from the meeting:

Congratulations to seven Class of 2015 seniors who were recognized in the National Merit program! Andrew Hall, Steven Hart & Andrew Reinhart were all named National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalists. They will go on to compete for the title of Finalist and scholarships from a variety of places. In addition, Jacob Dobrowolski, Amanda Dominique, Jamie Kuhn & Chris McKnight were named National Merit Commended students. These seven students are part of the top 50,000 students in the country – congratulations to you all!

Senior Megan Creager is the first MHS girls golfer to reach state qualification in the OHSSA Girls Golf Tournament – what a huge accomplishment! Megan will go on to play golf next year in college.

The Business Advisory Council has a new Chair! Chris Hamm, local businessperson who currently owns GSM Recycling and Milford restaurant Chappy’s Bourbon Bar and who has also run several successful businesses in the past, volunteered to take on this role for the next two years. The board unanimously appointed Chris and gave the new BAC two tasks: 1) determine the marketability/use options for the Milford South building; and 2) look into career education options for our students. Thank you, Chris, for your service. The board also thanks Tom Rocklin, who chaired the BAC for the past two years, for all he has done and for his leadership during the Milford Main project. Wonderful job, Tom!

The board approved membership in the Alliance for High Quality Education. This is a state-wide advocacy group for districts like ours, who are considered “wealthy” in the eyes of the state yet who rely heavily on local property taxes. The group has been highly successful in their advocacy efforts, resulting in over $900,000 in income to Milford over the past two years. We believe $2,500 to join the group and add our voice to their efforts is more than appropriate and beneficial to the district and our community.

We also approved an amendment to the agreement between the district and Jewish Hospital LLC for sports medicine services. This extends the relationship, which provides sports medicine care for our athletes and also $200,000 over five years, which will go toward the cost of the turf.

Construction on the new elementaries continues on schedule. The preliminary cost estimates show we are overbudget with current designs; Operations Manager Jeff Johnson is leading the work to identify ways to reduce the cost to keep the project in budget while still retaining a high-quality end result. Committees as Boyd and Seipelt have met re: playgrounds and interior design, and that process is going smoothly.

High School Principal Mark Lutz has resigned from his principal job at the end of this school year, which is the end of his contract. He approached the administration and asked to return to the classroom, as that is his passion and he would like more time to spend with family. Mr. Lutz will become a social studies teacher next year, and also likely coach. We thank him for his work as Principal over the past several years, and look forward to having his teaching skills back in the classroom!